Filling tension device



Nov. 23, 1943.

H. H. BURDETT FILLING TENSION DEVICE Filed April 9, 1943 2 h et l Fin. 1.

INVENTOR. HORACE H. BURDETT ATTORNEX H. H BURDETT I FILLING TENSION DEVICE Flled Apnl 9 1943 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 r/ if Nov. 23, 1943.

- 321 as H6. 5.

V INVENTOR.

H me: H. Bunosrr. I BY M ATTORNEY Patented Nov. 23, 1943 FILLING TENSION DEVICE Horace H. Burdett, Milford, Mass., assignor to Draper Corporation, Hopedale, Mass., at corporation of Maine Application April 9, 1943, Serial No. 482,421 7 Claims. (01. 139-494) The present invention relates to improvements in looms for weaving cloth and, as illustrated herein, relates more particularly to means for maintaining the filling thread under tension during the forward beat of the lay.

Loss of filling tension may result from rebound of the shuttle or to a slight unwinding of the filling thread after the shuttle has been boxed. When this occurs, the filling may not lay straight in the shed after being beat up and will produce a defect in the cloth. Another source of loss of filling tension is the slack produced in the filling thread as it is beat up into the fell of the shed. The filling thread is laid in the shed by the shuttle so that it is generally diagonally thereof and when the filling is beat up into the fell, it lies generally at right angles to the warp threads. Some of this slack is taken up when the shed closes but, under some conditions, this is insufficient to avoid the production of a wave or wavy effect with the result that the appearance of the cloth is impaired.

Various devices have heretofore been proposed for maintaining the filling thread under tension during the forward beat of the lay. While these devices were effective to prevent reduced tension due either to rebound of the shuttle or to a slight unwinding of the filling thread from its carrier, they were ineffective to take up the slack in the filling thread produced during the forward beat of the lay.

One object of the present invention, accordingly, is to provide a device which will not only maintain the tension of the filling thread but also to take up the slack produced during the forward beat of the lay. To this end and as illustrated I have provided a device which grips the filling thread during the forward beat of the lay and which causes that portion of the filling thread adjacent to the gripping device to assume an increasingly tortuous path as the forward beat of the lay progresses, thus effectively taking up the slack.

Another object of the invention is to provide a single and effective means for uniformally tensioning the filling thread. To this end, the illustrated device is provided with means which resiliently grips the filling thread to maintain it under a predetermined tension which will remain substantially constant during the forward beat of the lay as the slack produced by the forward beat of the lay is taken up.

Another object of the invention is to improve generally upon the construction and operation of looms for weaving cloth.

With the above and other objects and features in view, the invention will now be described with particular reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention and in which:

Fig. 1 is a view in perspective showing a preferred embodiment of the invention applied to the left hand side of a loom;

Fig. 2 is a detail view on a somewhat enlarged scale of the filling tensioning device embodying the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a view in side elevation of the filling tensioning device with the spring cover removed;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view on an enlarged scale taken along the line IV-IV of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a View in rear elevation of the filling tensioning device; and

Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line VIVI of Fig. 5.

The present invention is embodied in a loom of conventional construction and the drawings show only a fragmentary portion of the loom. In Fig. 1, there is shown a portion of the left hand end of a loom with the lay in its extreme forward position. The lay I0 is reciprocated rearwardly and forwardly in the usual manner and carries a reed I2 and a shuttle box l4 A shuttle I6 is picked across the lay in the usual manner. The loom is also provided with conventional breast beam I! to which is secured to a bracket l8 having an upstanding portion 20 to which a temple 22 of well known construction is secured. The shuttle box I4 is provided with the usual back box plate 24 which is fixed to the lay by the usual bolts (not shown).

Although only the left hand portion of the loom is shown in the drawings, the present invention is arranged to be applied also to the right hand end of the loom so that tension on the filling thread will be maintained when the shuttle I6 is in either the right or left hand shuttle box. As is usual in automatic filling replenishing looms, the shuttle I6 is picked from one shuttle box to the other and begins its movement before the lay has moved to its rearmost position and completes its movement during the forward beat of the lay. During this movement of the shuttle, the filling thread assumes a position generally diagonally of the warp threads and when the filling thread is beat up it extends approximately at right angles to the warp threads. Thus, even though there is no rebound of the shuttle or unwinding of the filling thread from the shuttle bobbin, the filling thread becomes slack. The filling tensioning and slack take up device of the present invention prevents loss of tension in the filling thread from these sources and maintains an even and uniform tension thereon under all conditions.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention, there are provided two cooperating members for maintaining the filling thread under tension. A gate member 26 having an opening 28 is fixed by means of a bolt 30 to the back surface of the inner end portion of the back box plate 26. The other or filling clamping member 32 is adjustably mounted on an upstanding portion 34 of the bracket 18. The filling thread is clamped by the member 32 as the lay beats forwardly and as the rear end of the member 32 passes through the opening 28 in the gate member 26 during the forward beat of the lay, the filling thread 36, as shown in Fig. 2, is caused to assume a tortuous path thus taking up the slack in the filling produced during the forward beat of the lay.

The filling clamping member 32 comprises a base 38 which, as shown best in Fig. 3, is provided at its forward end with a ledge lil forming a bearing for a spiral compression spring 42, which surrounds the forward extension d4 of the shank it. The other end of the spiral spring 42 bears against a shoulder 48 formed at the rear end portion of the extension it. The compression spring 42 urges the shank it in a rearward direction and causes the shoulder 33 to bear against a ledge 50 formed at the rear end portion of the base 38. The base 33 is provided with a cover 52 which maintains the parts in the relation described above but permits the clamping member 32 to yield and to move forwardly in the event that the member engages an improperly positioned shuttle. The cover 52 and the base 38 are secured in adjusted position to the upstanding portion 34 of the bracket l8 by bolts 3 (Fig. 1).

The rear end of the shank 46 is offset slightly to the left and terminates in clamping head 56 having a substantially horizontal base surface 58 which is somewhat narrower than the opening 28 in the gate member 26 and which has a maximum vertical dimension less than the height of the opening. 28 so that the head 56 may freely enter the opening. The head 56 is substantially L-shaped in vertical section to provide a ledge or shelf 60 through which are drilled a plurality of holes 82 arranged to receive a pin 64 which projects downwardly below the horizontal surface 58 and extends into an aligned hole 66 in a plate 58. The forward end of the head 56 is recessed at iii to receive the upwardly extending portion of the plate 68 which has an opening into which fits a screw 72 for securing the plate 68 in spaced relation to the lower surface 58 of the head 56. Tension devices '58 are located between the plate 63 and the lower surface 56 and are in the form of elongated metal pads having angularly disposed end portions f6, 78 which enter openings 83 and in the plate 53, and the head 55 respectively. The pads are maintained yieldingly in engagement with each other by coiled springs 86 which bear against the upper pad and are maintained thereagainst by adjusting screws 86 threaded in openings formed in the shelf 68. By means of the adjusting screws, pressure on the pads can be varied to increase or decrease the pressure as may be necessary or desirable.

The head 56, through its mounting on the bracket 34 iss-o positioned vertically that the lower surface of the plate 68 is slightly above the upper surface of the lay as it moves forwardly. The filling thread 36 is deflected by the curved rear end face 88 into the opening between the lower surface of the head 56 and the plate 68 and between the tension pads M as the lay moves forwardly. The forward movement of the filling is limited by the pin 64 and as the lay continues its forward beat, the head 56 enters the opening in the gate 26 and the filling thread is forced to assume a tortuous path by engagement with the vertical walls of the gate 2t.

It is apparent from the above that the tension pads M, which engage the filling thread 36 as the shuttle completely enters the shuttle box I4, prevent loss of tension in the filling thread due to rebound of the shuttle or to unwinding of the thread from the bobbin by the inertia of the thread itself. The slack produced in the filling during the forward beat of the lay is positively taken up by causing a portion. of the filling thread to follow a tortuous path.

When the shuttle i6 is picked out of the shuttle box i l, the filling thread 36 is pulled out from between the tension pads 14 before the shuttle enters the shuttle box on the other side of the loom. Thus, the filling tensioning and slack take-up device of the present invention does not interfere in any way with the laying of the filling in the shed.

While the invention has been described with particular reference to the illustrated embodiment thereof, it is to be understood that the in vention is not limited thereto since it may be varied within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention} what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a loom having a breast beam and areciprocating lay, normally stationary means mounted on the breast beam for independently gripping the filling to prevent loss of tension in the filling, and means carried by the lay cooperating with said first mentioned means for taking up slack produced in the filling as the lay beats forwardly.

2. In a loom having a breast beam and a lay provided with a shuttle box, normally stationary means mounted on the breast beam for independently gripping the filling as the shuttle completely enters the shuttle box to prevent loss of tension in said filling, and means carried by the lay cooperating with the first mentioned means and engaging the filling to take up slack produced in the filling as the lay beats forwardly.

3. In a loom having a breast beam and a reciprocating lay provided with a shuttle box, normally stationary means mounted on the breast beam and provided with tension pads for gripping the filling to prevent loss of tension therein when a shuttle is in the shuttle box, and means carried by the lay for engaging the gripped filling on opposite sides of said gripping means to take up the slack produced in the filling during the forward beat of the lay.

4. In a loom having a breast beam and a provided with a shuttle box, normally stationary support means mounted on the breast beam and projecting rearwardly into the path of movement of the lay, filling gripping means on the rear end portion of said normally stationary support means arranged to engage and grip the filling to prevent lossof tension in the filling when the shuttle is in the shuttle box, and a memberfi-x'ed to the rear lay a Wall of the shuttle box and projecting inwardly therefrom and having horizontally spaced vertically extending portions on opposite sides of the gripping means to engage the gripped filling to take up the slack produced in the filling as the lay beats forwardly.

5. A loom having a reciprocating lay provided with a shuttle box, a breast beam, a normally stationary support fixed to said breast beam and extending rearwardly therefrom, a pair of tension pads mounted in the rear end portion of said support, said pads normally being resiliently held in engagement with each other and arranged to receive and hold a filling thread to prevent loss of tension therein when a shuttle is in the shuttle box, and a member fixed to the rear box plate and having an opening through which the rear end portion of the support passes when the lay beats forwardly, the walls of said opening engaging the gripped filling thread and causing it to assume a tortuous shape during the forward beat of the lay thereby taking up the slack produced in the filling during the forward beat of the lay.

6. A loom having a reciprocating lay provided with a shuttle box, a breast beam, a rearwardly extending support mounted on said breast beam, and having a rearwardly directed opening for receiving a filling thread, a pair of tension pads mounted in said opening, resilient means for normally maintaining the tension pads in engagement to grip the filling thread and prevent loss of tension therein when the shuttle is in the shuttle box, and a member fixed to the rear box plate and projecting inwardly therefrom, said member having an opening alined with the rear end portion of said support and engaging the gripped filling as the lay beats forwardly to take up slack produced in the filling during the forward beat of the lay.

I. A loom having a reciprocating lay provided with a shuttle box, a breast beam, a rearwardly extending support mounted on said breast beam, and having a rearwardly directed opening for receiving a filling thread, a pair of tension pads mounted in said opening, resilient means for normaly maintaining the tension pads in engagement to grip the filling thread and prevent loss of tension therein when the shuttle is in the shuttle box, a member adjustably positioned in the rear end portion of said support to limit the extent of forward movement of the gripped portion of the filling, and a member fixed to the rear box plate and projecting inwardly therefrom, said member having an opening alined with the rear end portion of said support and engaging the gripped filling as the lay beats forwardly to take up slack produced in the filling during the forward beat of the lay.

HORACE H. BURDETT. 

